Watch From the Cockpit As a KC-135 Performs the Delicate Ballet of In-Air Refueling

Here's a new video of a Maine Air National Guard KC-135 Stratotanker refueling a U.S. Navy fighter over Southwest Asia—think Syria and Iraq. The tanker is part of the 101st Air Refueling Wing, also known as the "MAINEiacs."

The KC-135 has a crew of three, the pilot, co-pilot, and boom operator, and can carry up to 200,000 gallons of jet fuel. It was originally equipped with a stick-like refueling boom to refuel U.S. Air Force aircraft, which almost all use the boom method. The U.S. Navy, Marine Corps, and many U.S. allies however use the "probe and drogue" method, so the KC-135 in the video has been fitted with a probe adapter, which can be seen dangling from the boom. The KC-135 must land to fit the adapter, a process that takes less than an hour.

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The cockpit switches and dials, as one might notice, are almost all faded and worn. That's because the KC-135 Stratotanker has been in service since 1956, with 414 aircraft still operated by the Air Force, Air National Guard, and Air Force Reserve. The KC-135 Stratotanker will be replaced by the KC-46 Pegasus tanker, currently in development.

The fighter is a U.S. Navy F/A-18F Super Hornet strike fighter part of VFA-103, the "Jolly Rogers". VFA-103 is currently embarked on the carrier USS Dwight D. Eisenhower, which is scheduled to take over from the USS Truman as U.S. Naval Aviation's contribution to the war against the Islamic State.